The invention relates to the art of cooling cylindrical beverage containers, for example, by the process of rotating the container about its axis in the presence of, say, a bed of ice, which may be block, cubes or crushed, a basic principle which is well known and recently typified by the disclosure in the U.S. Pat. No. 4,164,851, to Bryant, wherein a beverage can is laid on its side atop a pair of parallel rollers by means of which rotation is imparted to the container.
The present invention departs in several novel areas from the teaching of the Bryant patent in that it provides coaxially spaced apart cup-like members for receiving a container there-between by gripping the container at its axially opposite ends and rotating same in a bed of ice carried in a tray or receptacle and in contact with the container. One member is carried by a motor-driven shaft and the other member is coaxially carried by a rotatable and axially slidable shaft that is spring-loaded toward the motor-driven member for two main purposes, one to grip the container, and, two, to enable axial shifting of the sliding shaft member to accommodate containers of different axial dimensions; e.g., convention soft drink, etc. cans and longer (higher) bottles of soft drinks, wine and the like. The spring-loading means comprises a pair of compression springs on the sliding shaft and abutting an intermediate collar, thus dividing the spring means into two components, one of which may be removed to enable axial shifting of the sliding shaft to a greater extent should longer containers be encountered. A further feature is the provision of a transverse partition slidable lengthwise relative to the shafts and receptacle to confine the ice to that portion of the tray that receives the can, thus preventing the ice from possible interference with the springs on the sliding shaft. A still further feature is the mounting of the tray or receptacle so that it may have limited up and down movement to prevent ice jamming during operation. The tray so mounted is carried in part by yielding means to cushion the tray and to urge it upwardly to a normal position.
Further features and advantages of the invention will appear as a preferred embodiment thereof is disclosed in detail (17) the ensuing description and accompanying drawings.